


Tears of Ice

by Silverladys



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, Rise of the Guardians - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-25
Updated: 2013-02-25
Packaged: 2017-12-03 15:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/699668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverladys/pseuds/Silverladys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ater Sandy Hook´s massacre, Jack feels that he and the rest of the Guardians have failed, but nobody seems to care. Or... maybe they do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tears of Ice

**Author's Note:**

> I don´t own Jack, Toothiana or Nicholas North - they belong to William Joyce and Dreamworks. This is a tribute to the innocent victims of a psycopath.

 

 

 _ _"We´re not doing enough"__     
                                                 **Barack Obama**

 

It was only two weeks left for Christmas, but Nicholas North´s toy factory was empty. Everything was left undone: toys for package, almost finished toys, wooden scraps and paint stains, as if the yeti had to drop all the work and leave in a sudden. North had ordered that, for an entire day, nobody would enter in the factory. Yetis and elves were reunited in the globe saloon, surrounding respectfully four downcast Guardians. No sound came, except the music produced by the elves´ bells.

Once again, the Guardians were mourning a great loss - not of one of them, this time, but of twenty innocent children. Exactly because of this, Sandman wasn´t present, for he had to make sure that children in EUA and in other spots around the world hadn´t nightmares inspired in the tragedy. It would be very easy for Pitch Black to take advantage from people´s pain  to regain his strenght. The rest of the Guardians had gathered in the globe room of North´s place,  in search of mutual comfort, but nothing seemed to be of much help. Especially for their youngest member, Jack Frost.

It wasn´t the first time that school shooting happened in EUA, Jack knew it well. Before becoming a Guardian, the frost youth  had lost his account of the moments when he had asked the Moon why such things happened - never having answers, of course. Back then, there wasn´t much that Jack could do, so he tried at his best to stay away from such events. His business was playing tricks on people and make them forget life hard knocks at least for a few moments. But now Jack was a Guardian and his life had changed a lot. So, naturally, he  thought that he could change things, too... until that tragedy happened. Jack couldn´t help but wondering if he could have been able to prevent that from happening. If he only knew what that monster planned to do... Then a mocking, inner voice sneered at his naiveness "And how could you guess? Do you happen to have a  crystal ball?" That confusing feeling weighed in his stomach, like a food you´re forced to eat and can´t diggest. Worse, he hadn´t anyone to open his heart. After spending three centuries all by himself, Jack finally had someone to talk to, people who cared about him. But now he felt all alone again. His friends stood at their side but each in its own separate shell, as if  bottling it all up would protect them from pain. Even North, who treated Jack as a son, wasn´t in the mood to listen to confidences.

Finally, the Tooth Fairy broke the silence. Since the Guardians have reunited that morning, she seemed to not want anyones´ company, excepting of her mini-fairies. During the ceremony, she had been hovering around in a corner of the room  with her small entourage, brushing her eyes every once in awhile. 

"I must go now, if you don´t mind"  she said in an uncomfortable, hurried tone " The children from Sandy Hook need too much their happiest memories now... and so have the parents from those poor little ones" with that, she rocketed out of the room tagged closely by  her fairies, before anybody else could say a word.

Her hasty departure brought the rest of the Guardians back to reality.

"Better I go back to my eggs, too" Bunnymund grumbled, shifting uncomfortably at his spot. Catching an unfinished egg on his,  he stared at it for a moment, then in a sudden tossed the egg angrily on the carpet "Moments like this I ask myself what´s the use of being a Guardian!" he outburst, then fixed quickly when he noticed his friends´ shocked looks   
"Hey, don´t get me wrong, I love my job. But in moments likes this, looks like that we never do enough." he added in, and, not wishing a reply, he stomped on the floor and jumped at a hole, which closed as quickly as it had been open.

Astonished, Jack stared at the spot on the floor where his friend/rival had gone. The master of snow never had thought that someday he would agree with Bunnymund in anything, but the Easter Bunny has expressed the exactly feelings Jack had at that moment.

"I asked him so much to not do that indoors" North complained "One of these days, he´ll forget an open hole."

"Bunny´s right."Jack said tensely, his hand gripping on his staff "We should have protected those children."

"Jack" North began patiently "I know how you feel, but..."

"Do you?! I made the Guardian oath because I learned how important was what we did as Guardians. But was good is into just protecting the children´s dreams when monsters destroy their bodies AND THEIR LIVES? " his last phrase raised to a scream.

"Do you really  think that you´re the only one to feel like that?" North shouted louder, making Jack back away "I´ve prepared everything to make this one of my most epic Christmas, and two weeks before, that happens! For the first time in centuries I´m not eager to climb on my sleigh at the Christmas night. I can´t bring myself into entering my factory and looking at the gifts that those poor murdered children supposed to receive." he continued, his voice rasping. Suddenly North looked much older. Brushing his eyes with a hand, he turned to look at the globe "But there are zillions of kids that are still alive and that deserve a great Christmas, no matter what happens in the rest of the world."

"And  whom otherwise would loose their faith in you " Jack muttered, regretting his words as soon as they left his lips. He risked a look at North, to find a very hurtful look at those big blue eyes. Jack felt a   . North always had treated him almost as if Jack was his son, and had been the first person to notice something worth in the frost spirit. Jack stammered some weak excuses, but they were cut by the sad, dry voice of the Christmas giant.

"Jack, our work is very, very hard. Everyday, millions of children in the world die of diseases, starvation or abuses that I´m not going to describe here. We Guardians live to make sure that children will be able to dream and not be taken by the darkest side of life. I thought you had understood this. Sandman haven´t come because he´s very busy keeping the nightmares away. Pitch´ll probably take advantage of this tragedy to confound children´s minds and recover strenght through their fears. If we Guardians give in to depression at anything that happens, how would we be able to bring them joy?"

"So you´re telling me to go and toss some snowballs as if nothing had happened?" Jack stared jaw-opened at North. 

"I´m not telling you anything. I just want some piece and quiet, without anyone whining at my heels" North´s patience was at the end. Turning his back at Jack, he stormed off  pushing a few shocked yetis on his way to the office"Get out of my way, you big furrballs!"

Jack stood in the middle of the globe room, completely shocked, like an kid lectured without any reason. Then in a sudden he reacted.

"AAAAHHHHH!" he stabbed his staff angrily on the carpet, covering it with a thin layer of ice. The frightened elves ran away of his fury, which was funny, since they kept sliding and nose-diving on the ice. The yetis stood their ground, but grumbled in disapproal .

"What? It´ll melt soon!" Jack snapped for them as he stormed out.

As soon as the lord of ice and snow saw himself outside, he took off like a missile, opening holes through the clouds as the wind hummed in his ears. Snow started to fall, dancing into crazy whilwinds  as he flied away from the Ice Fortress, and it ocurred Jack that perhaps a good blizzard was exactly what he needed to spill his anger out. However, he had to think about the people living in the Fortress, as well other beings living in the North Pole, since there were yetis who didn´t work for North. No, it was better going to Antartida. For all he knew, there weren´t any scientists there now, and he could look for a spot where he could outburst freely, without worrying about putting someone´s life in danger.

However, when you make a decision many things can change your mind along the way. Maybe it was the comforting touch of the North wind, or the dreams produced by Sandman that Jack saw at  on his long way to Antartida, the fact is that, when he finally reached his goal he no longer was in the mood of creating a blizzard. He didn´t feel like crying or even screaming, either, but the bitter lump formed in his stomach seemed heavier,  And in a sudden he realized he didn´t want to be alone.

But who would want his company?

"I just want some peace without anyone whining around." North certainly wasn´t be the only one who didn´t want a mourning boy around. Bunnymund would open a hole under Jack´s feet as soon as the frosty teenager stepped on Easter land. Sandman needed all the positive thoughts he had to keep children safe from nightmares. And Jack hadn´t the guts to see Jamie and his friends now. The kids probably would ask him why the Guardians had failed into protecting Sandy Hook children (kids have the power of asking things that hit where it hurts most) and Jack wouldn´t know what to say. Reluctantly, he started flying to Asia.

"She´s not going to want me around. " he admonished himself on his way"Sensitive as Tooth is, she must having a hard time to work after this tragedy. The last thing she needs is to talk to someone down in the dumps. But I can´t tell if I´ll not try. The worst she can do is asking me politely to come another day." 

Deep down, however, Jack didn´t believe she would ask him to go. Since Jack had officially become a Guardian, he had visited the Tooth Fairies palace almost as much as the Ice Fortress. He always was welcome there, no matter how  busy Tooth and her mini fairies were.  Her obsession for teeth apart, Tooth was a good friend, sensitive and understanding. She was the closest one to his heart, along with little Jamie. 

Like always, the Tooth Fairy palace looked like a huge colmeia, boiling and humming with iridescent "bees". Even if the Sandy Hook had  hurt the fairies´ hearts, there still uncountable children alive and waiting to have their baby teeth exchanged by coins; North was right. As Jack watched them coming and going from the palace, he felt  envious for them having such a work that didn´t need happy moods or inspiration and kept their minds busy. He was still a few meters away from the palace when an enstusiasted committee of cintilant fairies came to greet him. 

"Hello, ladies, how are you doing?" despite his downspirited state, Jack couldn´t help but smiling when a handful of fairies kissed lovingly his cheeks, as another small group pulled his hood down to reveal his hair. "Easy, easy, there´s enough of me for everyone!" he caught himself laughing with the little fairies´ infatuation and held out a finger to rub the head of the fairie next to his left hand. Much for his disappointment, Jack noticed that Baby Tooth, his second favorite fairy, wasn´t in that group. She should be giving Tooth company. 

"Any of you can show me where Tooth is?" he asked.

His question caused an almost deafening mess of chirps and squeals, but it was pretty clear they were yelling "I can! " "No! Me!"  "Me!" 

"Easy, easy, I just need one. The rest of you must go to collect the teeth, or you know what may happen."Jack started pointing randomly at the mini-fairies as he recited  "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo, catch a fairy by the toe, if the horses let her... go!"  

The last pointed fairy puffed her small chest happilly as her sisters nodded and flied back to work. They weren´t disappointed because it had been funny  and that way Jack had shown he liked all of them. 

Due his constant visits to the tooth fairies palace, Jack had learned a lot about the work of collecting and storaging  teeth. Each tower represented a continent, and although he still wasn´t able to make any difference between them, Jack´s intuition told him that his small guide was leading to the North America one. Toothiana was flying up the tower, removing a few conteiners with the help of a small group of mini-fairies. Jack remembered what she had said back on the North Pole about opening the memories of the mourning colleagues and parents from the murdered children, so he placed a finger on his lips asking his little guide to not tell Tooth he was there. The two floated in silence, watching the fairies work, until Baby Tooth casually turned around. She immediatelly spotted Jack down there and squealed in delight, causing Tooth to turn around, too, her arms full of containers. When the Tooth Fairy spotted Jack, she gasped in surprise, dropping two conteiners. 

Jack jumped in the air and caught one of the falling conteiners. A few mini-fairies caught the other one, mumbling things that Tooth would have disapproved if she wasn´t so astonished with the visit. 

"I´m sorry" Jack aphologized as he flied towards Tooth  "It´s just I... I happened to be passing by and I decided to see if you girls were doing well..." Jack held out the hand holding the teeth container, but noticed that Tooth was struggling with all the other containers filling her arms, so he held his hand back"But I saw you were very busy and didn´t want to disturb you..."  Jack put the container at the top of the pile held by Tooth and started turning aroung "And, well, I guess it´s better I go..." he started turning around, but Tooth had found a way to leave one of her hands free enough to hold him by his hoodie.

"You´re not disturbing us, Jack" she said in a soft, but firm tone "It was very nice from to concern about us"

Her gentle words just made Jack feel worse. He had came for himself, not for being truly concerned about the fairies.

"These are the teeth of the Sandy Hook children, aren´t they?  I mean, of the other children studying th...."

"No. We already opened their containers. These are the teeth of the.. murdered children." she explained with a dry swallow.

"Oh."Jack looked down embarassed" I´m not much good in mathemathics, but looks like you have more than twenty there." he observed after a pause.

"I´ve got the teeth of the deceased director and teachers, too. We´re going to bring back the memories of all of them." she explained. Noticing that Jack still looked  
confused, she carried on "In some religions, people claim that those who had a violent death carry their pain for afterlife"    "and I´ve been thinking that they might be right. If we ´ll make these poor souls remember the good moments of their childhoods, maybe we can smooth their pain."    "At least it´s something we can do for them."

"...in moments likes this, looks like that we never do enough"  Bunnymund´s words came back in Jack´s mind, and he started realizing how unfair he  had been to North and to the rest of  his fellow Guardians. Even though they didn´t show it openly, they were probably feeling as importent as Jack felt.. With a softly smile, he rested his hand on Tooth´s shoulder.

"If you ladies will do for them as much as you did for me, it´ll be much more than the rest of us Guardians could do. I only wish I could help you freeing the memories." he said softly.

The boxes that kept children´s baby teeth could be opened only by the tooth fairies or by the owners of the teeth themselves. This detail had been a blessure when Pitch´s nightmare attacked the palace; it was frightening to think what would have happened if the horses had been able to open the containers.

Tooth opened her lips, then closed them again, as she stared thoughtfully at Jack. 

"It´s really a pity. But you can help us in another way. My fairies are strong, but they have to change when they carry too much weight."

"Sure"  Jack held  his staff under his arm (even though  the staff wasn´t actually the source of his power, he still couldn´t float without it) and held out his hands. In a few seconds, Jack´s arms were full of containers handed by very relieved mini-fairies. 

They carried the containers to an empty plataform that was distant from the towers, with a black, stony table at its center. Standing at each corner of the table, a  tall,    sculpted candlestick. Those objects surprised Jack. Save for a few banks, he never had seen any kind of furniture at the entire palace. He was about to ask, but noticed that Tooth´s feathers were ruffling, in a clear sign of tension.

They laid the containers in two parallel lines over the table, as four mini-fairies lit up the candles. Cerimoniously, the two guardians stood in front of the table, as the mini-fairies flied at their back, in a respectful silence. Then, in an unexpected movement, Tooth turned to Jack and grabbed his hands, turning his palms up at the same time she started speaking in a weird, unknown language. He heard the fairies  at his back, but had no time to say anything, because strange rune-like signals flashed in his hands, as Tooth hasted her speech. Sweatdrops rolled down her face. It wasn´t necessary a brilliant mind to understand that she was making an enchantment, and Jack realized what was the purpose. Still, it was obvious that was costing her so much, at the point of some of her feathers falling down. 

When Tooth finished, she released his hands and stood in silence for a moment, heavily breathing. She never had done that before, so she had no idea that such a spell could take so much from her. She just hoped it would work. Lifiting up her shoulders and head, she stared at Jack´s eyes, her face serious, almost stern. In that very moment, she wasn´t Jack´s bubbly, scatterbrained friend; she was the Queen of the Toothfairies and Guardian of the Memory. Jack wanted to ask her to stop, but he had no idea about what could happen to her if he interrupted her concentration.

Finally, Tooth silenced. She felt dizzy and weary; if Jack hadn´t promptly her up, she would have fallen down. He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, but something in her look  stopped him. Releasing herself from his hands, the fairy straightened up; she had no idea of how much of her energy such a spell would cost her, because she never had done that before. Tooth just hoped that would work. 

"Jack Frost" she started in a deep tone, and the young man felt like her voice was echoing inside the entire palace "you have received a gift that never, in 440 years, no being on Earth, mortal or immortal, has received before. For half an hour, you´ll be able to acess others´ memories, just like any of us. Do you promise to honor the gift you received and the memories that will be in your hands?

"I will" he answered promptly.

"Then start!"

Jack turned straight to  the container at the center of the table, from the first line. Smoothly, almost tenderly, his fingers brushed the delicate mosaics covering the top of the box and watched them turning into a golden light that rised to the roof and seemed to escape through the windows. A lump formed in his throat, as he remembered the moment he had his own memories back.

In silence, Jack Frost and the Tooth Fairy touched, one by one, the boxes contained the childhood memories of Sandy Hook victims. Every golden light that  flashed was like a soul becoming free and flying away. None of the two Guardians or the mini-fairies  knew which memories were been brought back, because they belonged only to each person. They weren´t even sure if that really would give some piece to the souls of those murdered people. They just prayed that the memories could help those people in their afterlives. 

After the last container was open, Jack and Tooth stood in silence, looked down and avoiding to look at each other. Tooth ventured to glance at Jack, but he was expressionless, staring at the teeth resting the opened boxes as he was mesmerized by them. She felt quite uncomfortable, wishing to say how grateful she felt for his presence, but 

They heard a sound - a very soft, subtle sound, slight slower than the tingle of a quarter, though in that silence it sounded very loud - and the eyes of both were brought to the source. A very small piece of eye, already melting, rested on the end of the box next to Jack. Automatically, Tooth caught the box and started rubbing it with her feathered wrist.

"I´m sorry" she heard him mutter at her side "I didn´t mean it...  My tears become ice when they fall from my eyes. " Jack explained as he brushing his face quickly "I hate that."

"No need to aphologizes" she reassured him, putting the box back on the tabke "Actually, you´re lucky for being able to cry. " she let out a heavy sigh "When I first heard of this tragedy, I wanted so much to cry, but I felt dry inside. I still do."

A glint of recognizition flashed in his eyes.

"It´s like having a rock in your chest, isn´t it? Pulling you down with its weight?" he suggested.

Tooth nodded.

"I must confess you something, Jack. " she started hurriedly "I had this idea of opening the memories of Sandy Hook people because of you. That´s why I gave you a small part of my power, so you could take part in the ceremony."

"Because of me?" his blue eyes went round in astonishment "How come?"

Tooth breathed deeply before talking, as if it would cost her much telling that.

"Since you told me about your past, I´ve been wondering if it wasn´t the shock of getting drowned that erased your memories away. For 300 years you´ve been wandering through the world by yourself, not even knowing who you were, while I had all the answers. If I only knew what you were been through, I could have helped you long time ago..." she trailed off, her voice choking.

Like Tooth, Jack felt a lump forming in his throat. Now he understood why she looked so awkward since his arrival at the palace. Tooth felt guilty for his 300 years of amnesia and loneliness and didn´t want the same happened to the poor  souls of Sandy Hook. 

"There´s nothing for you to blame yourself. I owe you so much and not only my memories. I thought I had failed with these children but y...you.."his voice broken by sobs. 

He felt the weight into his chest finally melting away. The feeling was a relief,  but also broke him somehow, giving Jack the feeling he would fall down at any moment. Tooth tried to hug him and he pulled back, afraid of covering her with ice, but she went forward wrapped firmly her arms around his body, refusing to be . Sobs shook her body, too.

Jack hugged her back. He was as tall as she was, so they fit perfectly, each one´s head resting on another´s shoulder. Tooth´s tears, finally free, started to wet Jack´s hoodie and hair, turning into the same thin ice that started covering her feathers. Usually, when you hear "ice" you think about  unsensivity and indifference; but the ice born from their mutual pain brought them closer.   

 

THE END


End file.
